New Delhi: Indian postage stamps issued in 2015 will have prominent people icons of all ideological, cultural, music stream and revolutionaries other than Nehru-Gandhi family political icons.

BJP-led NDA government has decided to give space for famous personalities icons of various streams other than Nehru-Gandhi family, on postage stamps which are issued for daily use. The government has been taken this decision during committee directed by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister of IT, Telecom and Posts.

The postal department issues two types of stamps including definitive and commemorative. Definitive stamps are used for daily usage in various denominations and are available across all post offices in the country. Commemorative stamps are the limited edition stamps, issued only for special occasions related to people, institutions and events.

The new list of icons for Definitive stamps were decided by communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad during meeting on Monday, the new list includes names Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jaiprakash Narayan, B R Ambedhkar, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. The BJP government is also decided to include names of poet Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, poet Subramaniya Bharathi, freedom fighter Shaheed Bhagat Singh and three famous musicians names Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi and M A Subhalakshmi.

A review of icons on stamps takes place for every 6-7 years, last the it was revised in 2008. The government is also decided to include famous personalities in the fields of literature, music, dance, painting and revolutionaries in the commemorative category. In future the commemorative stamps may have the icons of singers Geeta Dutt, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Talat Mehmood, Manna Dey, Mukesh, painters Nandalal Bose and Raja Ravi Varma, dancer Rukmani Devi Arundale and writers Prem Chand Maithili Sharan Gupta and Dinkar.